Weavers
sing. Weaver, adj. Weaverine
That thing's looking at me! Tell me what it is before I touch it.
- Origin: Simulated Evolution
- Environment(s): Hard Vacuum, Human, Benthic
- Body Plan: Tube-like, long-tailed, octapodal invertebrate.
Weavers are presentient teleians 1-2 meters in length whose way of life revolves around their ability to spin, weave, compose, and maintain a tough living fabric.
Description
Weavers have flat, flexible, elongated bodies with webbing between their four pairs of stubby limbs. Their tails comprise over half of their body length. Their blunt heads are host to two patches that serve as their eyes. Weavers' skin is an airtight, slightly translucent rubbery casing that can survive extreme environments including space. Their casings come in a huge variety of colors and patterns of streaks and spots.
Weaving
Weavers possess a large, cylindrical loom organ protruding from their ventral tail base. This organ can unfold to reveal several spinnerets capable of spinning a silvery thread with self-healing properties. Using chemical signals relayed from long fingernails, Weavers can control the shape, stitching, thickness, and stiffness of their threads and weave them into an incredibly-strong fabric. While the Weaver has either its spinnerets or fingernails in contact with the fabric, they can direct its topology very accurately.
Across TTMA-aligned space, and in many other places besides, Weavers are prized for their natural behaviors. They can be taught to weave pieces that perform a number of important tasks, anything that a bag, pack, basket, or sling might perform. Several Weavers in concert can build larger enclosed spaces such as tents or even spacecraft pressure hulls. The puncture-resistant, heat-tolerant, and self-healing nature of Weaver cloth makes a Weaver-maintained spacesuit highly effective.
In addition to cloth and thread, Weavers produce weaver oil, a fragrant lubricant and sealant that forms a protective skin in a vacuum rather than boiling off. In the context of clothing maintained by live Weavers, weaver oil will prevent chafing, drying, or the wearer's skin from growing into the suit after long periods without changing clothes. Individuals that regularly wear a weaver-maintained garment like the Engram Capture and Vacuum Survival Garment have a distinct, incense-like smell.
Behavior
Weavers not otherwise occupied live arboreal lives, crafting colorful patterened webs and elaborate tensed-fabric dwellings among treetops. They are driven to collect and channel water, a useful drive seeing as how they also make spacesuits. On Atsuvan, for example, Weaver habitats (essentially tall poles with struts jutting out) are maintained around the cities. The Weavers respond quickly to rain by unfolding their habitats and serving as a citywide umbrella, channeling the water to streams and open drainage ditches.
Varieties
- Giant Weaver: a lineage that grows to a much larger size, sometimes in excess of three meters.
- Clubface Weaver: these have an especially blunt, flat head.
- Forked Weaver: Some have observed that, in the EC-VSG hibernation position, Forked Weavers give the best shoulder rubs and arm massages.
- Flattail Weaver: Many Weavers have a tail-braiding behavior during hibernation. Flattail Weavers' broader tails make for a larger, more elaborate braid.